Re: click-wrap contracts and libraries

Lloyd,

Before you go lending software to anyone, I would strongly suggest that you talk to an attorney and have him look at the licenses. The penalties for copyright infringement can be quite stiff.

If you look at section 106 of the copyright act, one of the rights enumerated that is specifically reserved to the copyright owner is the right to "distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the publisc by sale . . . or by rental, lease, or lending."

The fact that the license may permit you to transfer the software from one computer to another was probably not intended to cover lending (in fact, the act was amended to close a perceived loophole that allowed software rental stores to flourish briefly).

What is and is not permissible will probably turn on the language in the particular license agreements, but given the statutory language I don't know how far your interpretation of the transfer language will get you.

Kevin Grierson

Kevin W. Grierson
Willcox & Savage, P.C.
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>>> lchittenden[_at_]ivc.cc.ca.us 01/27/03 05:44PM >>>
I work at a community college library. We would like to be able to lend software to our students. Often the click-wrap or shrink-wrap contracts preclude us from lending the software. I have a theory that I would like to run by you copyright experts. The contract allows us to move the software from one computer to another within our institution, as long as only one copy exists at a time. What if we consider the students part of the institution that owns the license, and therefore loaning them the software to take home is just transferring the software within the organization? We would have a sticker telling them to remove the software from their computer when they return it to the library. Do you think we can lend software to our students under this rationale?

Lloyd

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Lloyd Chittenden
Library Technician
Irvine Valley College Library
5500 Irvine Center Dr.
Irvine, CA 92618
Phone:  (949) 451-5712
E-mail: lchittenden[_at_]ivc.edu 
http://www.ivc.edu 
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